Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer returns home to NBC Friday, Dec. 6, exactly 60 years to the day of its premiere, with a “special extended version.”
Instead of a one-hour broadcast, as it has aired on CBS since 1973, NBC plans a one hour and 15 minute version of the beloved stop-motion program narrated by folk singer Burl Ives. It’s the longest tenured Christmas TV special, having debuted on Dec. 6, 1964.
The additional time could mean that the network may restore the “Fame and Fortune” musical number or prospector Yukon Cornelius discovering a peppermint mine, scenes that were cut in 1978 to accommodate more commercials. However, NBC’s “Everything to Know” about Rudolph, posted Tuesday on the network’s website, does not explain what will be included in the super-sized version Friday.
Rudolph’s red nose led the way for annual animated Christmas specials which have become TV classics. A Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on CBS the next year (1965), followed by How The Grinch Stole Christmas read by Boris Karloff on CBS (1966) and Frosty The Snowman on CBS (1969) narrated by Jimmy Durante.
Frosty, after 55 years on CBS, moves to NBC at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, immediately after How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Many more Christmas classics arrive through the weekend, some of which were not in my Holiday Program Guide posted Sunday.
Information from American Movie Classics before my Thanksgiving deadline did not list a 70th anniversary showing of White Christmas (8 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, AMC) with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, or the 1947 Miracle On 34th Street with Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn and Maureen O’Hara (10:45 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, AMC).
Turner Classic Movies this weekend will air It Happened on 5th Avenue (4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7), Holiday Affair (6:15 p.m. Dec, 7) Reginald Owen’s 1938 A Christmas Carol (11:45 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 8) and Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in the 1961 King of Kings (5 p.m. Dec. 8).
TCM’s Christmas week films, also not in my list, include Christmas in Connecticut, Remember The Night, Going My Way, Bells of St. Mary’s, The Shop Around The Corner, The Bishop’s Wife and the 1938 A Christmas Carol. Here’s a link to the TCM December schedule.
Thursday night specials also include All Creatures Great and Small: Christmas in the Dales (8 p.m., Channel 48); the season premiere for the Great Christmas Light Fight (8-10 p.m., ABC); Elf (8 p.m., AMC); Frozen II (8:25 p.m., Freeform); and Patrick Stewart’s 1999 A Christmas Carol (10 p.m., TNT).
Friday holiday highlights include the 1967 animated Cricket On The Hearth (7 a.m., Freeform); Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (8:15 p.m., Freeform); We Remember: Songs of Survivors (9 p.m., CET Arts Channel 48.3); and Noelle (10:55 p.m., Freeform) with Anna Kendrick.
Here’s a guide to the Classic TV highlights from my Holiday Program Guide:
Saturday offerings include
- A Very Merry Bugs Bunny Christmas (9 a.m., MeTV, Channel 5.2)
- Gunsmoke Christmas with seven orphans (1 p.m., MeTV, Channel 5.2)
- Wayne Newton’s Christmas episode on Bonanza (2 p.m., MeTV, Channel 5.2)
- Rawhide cowboys’ Christmas party for a sick Mexican boy (3 p.m., MeTV, Channel 5.2)
- A Christmas Story (8 p.m., TBS)
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (8p.m., AMC)
- More Frosty the Snowman (8:30 p.m., Freeform) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (9:10 p.m., Freeform)
Sunday Christmas TV episodes on MeTV include
- Carol losing her voice before The Brady Bunch Christmas concert (10 a.m.);
- a near rescue for Christmas on Gilligan’s Island (3 p.m.);
- Mama working as a mall Santa on Mama’s Family (4 p.m.);
- the Christmas jail party on The Andy Griffith Show (6 p.m.);
- Hawkeye’s Christmas letter to his dad on M*A*S*H (7 p.m.);
- Father Mulcahy’s Christmas letter to his sister on M*A*S*H (7:30 p.m.);
- no Christmas bonus for Archie Bunker on All In The Family (8 p.m.);
- Penny steals a necklace while Christmas shopping on Good Times (8:30 p.m.);
- Fred become a scrooge on Sanford & Son (9:30 p.m.);
- Eunice’s brother (Alan Alda) visits at Christmas on the Carol Burnett Show (10:30 p.m.);
- the Alan Brady Show cast performs a Christmas musical on The Dick Van Dyke Show (11 p.m.);
- and Ralph Kramden sells his bowling ball to buy his wife a Christmas gift on he Honeymooners (midnight).
